Cet article analyse les relations conceptuelles (imprecises) de la vulnerabilite, de la resilience et de la capacite d’adaptation aux changements climatiques selon le systeme socio-ecologique (socio-ecologigal systems – SES) afin de comprendre et anticiper le comportement des composantes sociales et ecologiques du systeme. Une serie de questions est proposee par l’auteur sur la specification de ces termes afin de developper une structure conceptuelle qui inclut les dimensions naturelles et so...

Linkages between vulnerability, resilience, and adaptive capacity

Sustainability assessment is being increasingly viewed as an important tool to aid in the shift towards sustainability. However, this is a new and evolving concept and there remain very few examples of effective sustainability assessment processes implemented anywhere in the world. Sustainability assessment is often described as a process by which the implications of an initiative on sustainability are evaluated, where the initiative can be a proposed or existing policy, plan, programme, project, piece of legislation, or a current practice or activity. However, this generic definition covers a broad range of different processes, many of which have been described in the literature as 'sustainability assessment'. This article seeks to provide some clarification by reflecting on the different approaches described in the literature as being forms of sustainability assessment, and evaluating them in terms of their potential contributions to sustainability. Many of these are actually examples of 'integrated assessment', derived from environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA), but which have been extended to incorporate social and economic considerations as well as environmental ones, reflecting a 'triple bottom line' (TBL) approach to sustainability. These integrated assessment processes typically either seek to minimise 'unsustainability', or to achieve TBL objectives. Both aims may, or may not, result in sustainable practice. We present an alternative conception of sustainability assessment, with the more ambitious aim of seeking to determine whether or not an initiative is actually sustainable. We term such processes 'assessment for sustainability'. 'Assessment for sustainability' firstly requires that the concept of sustainability be well-defined. The article compares TBL approaches and principles-based approaches to developing such sustainability criteria, concluding that the latter are more appropriate, since they avoid many of the inherent limitations of the triple-bottom-line as a conception of sustainability.

Conceptualising sustainability assessment

After 1992 many conservation biologists thought that the use of economic instruments would be more effective to halt biodiversity loss than policies based on setting apart some natural spaces outside the market. At the same time there was a new elaboration of the concept of ecosystem services and, since 1997, there have been attempts at costing in money terms the loss of ecosystem services and biodiversity, including the high profile TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) project (2008-2011). Our discussion rests on instances showing the analytical implications of three main socio-economic meanings of biodiversity loss: 1) the loss of natural capital; 2) the loss of ecosystem functions; and 3) the loss of cultural values and human rights to livelihood. We review several approaches to include economic considerations in biodiversity conservation. We show cases where monetary valuation is relevant and other cases where it is controversial and even counterproductive, as it undermines the objectives of conservation.

https://ddd.uab.cat/pub/artpub/2013/123201/Rodriguez-Labajos_Economics_of_ecosystems_and_biodiversity_a2013.pdf

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Recent Instances for Debate

Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Synthesis

A framework for clarifying the meaning of Triple Bottom-Line, Integrated, and Sustainability Assessment

Social impact assessment and environmental impact assessment have developed as separate entities, but a full appreciation of all impacts requires a thorough understanding of all the biophysical and social changes invoked by a planned intervention. Biophysical impacts also have social impacts, and social changes can cause changes in the biophysical environment, which create biophysical impacts. To date, there has not been an adequate framework for integrating biophysical and social impact assessment. This paper presents a method for such integration using function evaluation as a conceptual framework. This has led to a better understanding of the full extent of human impacts, and the impact pathways that lead from interventions to the experience of impacts.

Function evaluation as a framework for the integration of social and environmental impact assessment

https://www.sevs.nl/index_htm_files/2003%20EIA%20Review%2023%20Slootweg&Kolhoff.pdf

A generic approach to integrate biodiversity considerations in screening and scoping for EIA

https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/pleins_textes_7/b_fdi_53-54/010021098.pdf

Mosquitoes and malaria transmission in irrigated rice-fields in the Benoue valley of northern Cameroon

Strategic environmental assessment is often referred to as a tool for predicting the consequences of planned development. The assumption of predictability of outcomes is inconsistent with reality which is characterised by uncertainty and complexity. Furthermore, the capacity of our life support systems to absorb disturbance and re-organise without changing into undesirable states appears to be of critical importance. Resilience thinking provides a structured way of looking at complexity, uncertainty and interrelatedness of systems and processes, and above all, provides us with new ways of dealing with planning and more effective use of SEA. Resilience thinking provides inspiration for those who want to extend their thinking about sustainability, but it also challenges some ideas underpinning the impact assessment profession (the future is unpredictable; change is inevitable; increasing stability leads to vulnerability). This paper is the result of a lively and well-visited workshop on resilience thinking ...

/pdf/resilience-thinking-improves-sea-a-discussion-paper-3lncboap67.pdf

Resilience thinking improves SEA: a discussion paper

The use of molluscivorous fish for biological control of snail intermediate hosts of schistosomiasis is a regularly reappearing theme in the literature on schistosomiasis control. The effectiveness of this control method has not yet been demonstrated, and conclusive field evidence is lacking. In this article the literature on snail control by fish is critically reviewed. Special attention is paid to the cichlid fish Astatoreochromis alluaudi that has been used in well-documented field trials in Kenya and Cameroon. After some small initial success, after a longer period the fish appeared to be ineffective in snail control. Moreover, the fish reproduces at a pace too slow to be of use in large-scale biocontrol trials. Laboratory observations on foraging behaviour and anatomy of the fish give essential cues to explain the failure of the fish in snail control. An observed reduction in the fishes' pharyngeal jaw apparatus, used to crush snails shells, results in a lower profitability of snails. As predicted by a simple foraging model, the prey preference of the fish shifts towards other more profitable prey items, such as benthic and pelagic macrofauna. Although eradication of snails by fish will not be feasible in most cases, the role of natural predators of snails cannot be neglected, and may still be of importance in integrated control efforts.

Roel Slootweg

Papers

Function evaluation as a framework for the integration of social and environmental impact assessment

A generic approach to integrate biodiversity considerations in screening and scoping for EIA

Mosquitoes and malaria transmission in irrigated rice-fields in the Benoue valley of northern Cameroon

Resilience thinking improves SEA: a discussion paper

The biological control of snail intermediate hosts of schistosomiasis by fish